Smart Woman: Great American Smokeout
By: Maxine Ridling
Updated: November 15, 2012
The Surgeon General of the United States has compared the addictive properties of tobacco to that of cocaine and heroin.
The best way to kick the habit, experts say, is through a combination of counseling and medication.
The health benefits of quitting can be seen in as few as 12 hours.
Your blood pressure is down, you blood will flow more freely. You can breath more easily.
After three months you're less likely to develop one of the 15 cancers associated with smoking.
If you make it to a year, you are much less likely to go back to smoking and half as likely to develop heart disease.
The American Cancer Society says 10 years after quitting, the risk of dying from lung cancer is about half that of a person who is still smoking.
And if you slip up, don't consider it a failure, it's all part of the process.


